The new Luxeon Stylist Series of COB LEDs will include subset component lines with the CCT and spectral power distribution implemented specifically for different areas of a grocery store, for high-fashion retail, and for optimized ambience in restaurants.
Lumileds has announced the Luxeon Stylist Series of chip-on-board (COB) LEDs with optimized spectral power distribution (SPD) options for very specific applications and plans also to bring the Stylist technology to mid-power LEDs and to the Matrix family of Level 2 light engines. The FreshFocus line will include five different SPDs intended for enhancing the look and appeal of produce, fish, marbled meat (red meat with prevalent white fat), red meat, and bread and pastries in a grocery store. The CrispColor line similarly targets retail while the AtmoSphere lines targets restaurant and hospitality applications.
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Arguably, Lumileds really kicked off the Stylist concept with the CrispWhite COB LEDs announced some two years back. Those LEDs are optimized to accurately render white papers and fabrics treated with optical brightening agents, and the development team went on to win the inaugural LEDs Magazine Sapphire Illumineer of the Year Award. Now Lumileds has created the Stylist Series that will add the new LED lines mentioned above to the CrispWhite offering. Along with the new Stylist lines, Lumileds has also delivered a second-generation (Gen2) CrispWhite line with efficacy now reaching 100 lm/W.
The overreaching goal of the Stylist Series is optimizing customer experience to increases sales in a variety of retail environments. "We know that the right lighting has a profound impact on customer behavior, affecting the time spent in stores and net revenues," said Luis Aceña, senior manager of the Stylist Series at Lumileds. "With the Stylist Series, lighting designers are now able to bring out the very best colors in the products and places it illuminates."
In addition to the Gen2 CrispWhite COB LEDs, the CrispColor COB LEDs will be first in the Stylist Series to market with the commercial introduction due on July 19. Lumileds has engineered the LED line to be used as a replacement for halogen and ceramic metal halide (CMH) lamps in fashion retail applications.
What's clear about CrispColor and the other new lines in the Stylist Series is that Lumileds' engineers focused far beyond CCT in developing the new LEDs. Indeed, the SPD has been optimized in each case based on research into customer preference. In the CrispColor line, Lumileds will offer a range of CCTs from 2700K to 5000K. In each CCT, however, the SPD delivers light well below the black body locus (BBL), indeed even further from the BBL than the CrispWhite falls. Lumileds said studies by Yoshi Ohno, of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), indicate a clear consumer preference "for negative Duv" over the CCT range of 2200K–6500K. And as we have written, standards bodies continue to study such preferences and could publish new guidelines on the topic.
For Lumileds, the CrispColor development was about optimizing the visual appeal for colors and whites. The below-the-BBL design means tint-free whites that meet human preference, while the LEDs also make colors look more saturated and vivid. But CrispColor LEDs will not activate optical brightening agents in fabrics the way CrispWhite LEDs do. CrispColor LEDs will have a CRI of 91 with an R9 value of 93 for reds. And relative to the new Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) TM-30 metric, the Rf or fidelity metric is 91 and the Rg or gamut metric is 103. Lumileds has also published an SPD graph that shows a close match for the legacy sources that have previously been used in fashion retail.
Later this summer, meanwhile, Lumileds will commercialize the AtmoSphere line. Those LEDs will fall directly on the BBL at a CCT of 2200K. Many restaurants achieve that type of lighting SPD using dimmed halogen lamps today. The AtmoSphere, CrispColor, and CrispWhite lines will be offered across the Lumileds portfolio of COB light emitting surface (LES) sizes from 6–23 mm.
Coming to market commercially starting at the end of August and continuing into the fall will be the CrispFresh LEDs with that single brand including the five sub segments mentioned previously. Indeed, the CrispFresh line will include many component configurations and initially Lumileds only plans to offer the LEDs with a choice of 15- or 19-mm LES.
The SPDs for the CrispFresh range widely. The Fish and Bread & Pastry offerings will be on the BBL at CCTs of 6500K and 2700K, respectively. The Produce LEDs will be in the 3000K range with an SPD that yields light slightly below the BBL. The Marbled and Red Meat LEDs will be located farther below the BBL with a CCT of 3500K and 2200K, respectively.
Of course, Lumileds' intended market for the CrispFresh line is grocery stores that may not be accustomed to using so many different types of lighting in one store. Lumileds, however, insists that stores in Europe are already demanding such granularity in lighting for optimum displays and that some Safeway stores are doing such lighting in the US.
It's also worth noting that many grocers use a lot of linear fixtures as opposed to directional lights that might leverage a COB LED. Evidently, that fact will lead Lumileds to later offer the Stylist technology in other LED form factors. Rick Hamburger, senior director of product management, said mid-power LEDs that might go into a typical linear fixture and Matrix rigid and flexible printed-circuit boards (PCBs) built around such mid-power LEDs would arrive to market later.
Meanwhile, the Lumileds team feels strongly that the CrispFresh technology will deliver real benefits to grocers. "Customer loyalty in markets is largely built on the quality of the fresh food area," said Aceña. "When food looks fresh, customers are more likely to purchase more and they will be more likely to return."